Name: Chicken Salad Provençal
Ingredients: 3 Tbs. red wine vinegar; 1 Tbs. Dijon mustard; 1/3 cup olive oil; Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste; 1 lb. small red potatoes; 1/2 lb. slender green beans, trimmed; 1 small head butter lettuce, leaves separated; 2 cups shredded or sliced roast chicken,; homemade (see related recipe at left) or; purchased; 3 plum tomatoes, cut into wedges; 1/2 cup Niçoise olives; 1 small red onion, thinly sliced; 1/4 cup slivered fresh basil

Why it works: Potato and green beans work together. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Potato + green beanstop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Olive + potatotop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,458 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Mustard + potatotop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,340 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Mustard + green beanstop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together116 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,067 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Swap the green beans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (red wine, vinegar, mustard, olive, pepper, potato, butter):

Capsicumfits better
Tomatofits better
Shallotfits better
Green beansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against red wine, vinegar, mustard, olive, pepper, potato, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Chicken	100g cooked	165
Potato	1 medium (173g) baked	161
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Bell Pepper	1 medium (119g)	31
Plum	1 medium (66g)	30
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Lettuce	1 cup shredded (36g)	5
Olive	1 large (4g)	4
Vinegar	1 tbsp (15ml) distilled	3
Mustard	1 tsp (5g) yellow	3
Basil	5 leaves fresh (2.5g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Chicken Salad Provençal